


champagne for my real friends

by SummerFrost



Series: Suitehearts [10]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Barbecue, Drama, Implied Petty Theft, Implied kink, M/M, NHL All-Star Weekend, Queer Themes, and it's weird at parties, that one friend group where everyone's slept with everyone else
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 09:16:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17895725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummerFrost/pseuds/SummerFrost
Summary: "Nelly," Rosco asks, "did you bring drama to my barbecue?""Someone had to."





	champagne for my real friends

**Author's Note:**

> Endless love and thanks to the #hellsquad and to agrossunderstatement, who beta'd!
> 
> Title from (you guessed it!) Fall Out Boy.

**January 2019**

“I mean, you guys are like my dads, but Zimmermann is, like,  _ daddy,  _ you know?”

Nelly laughs so hard he sprays beer all over Miley, who’s laying on the floor and looking super offended.

“Oh my God, no,” Bitty says, throwing up his hands. “I can’t.”

Parse is tense. Nelly drops his hand down to his hip and massages gently while Miley protests, “Don’t laugh, I’m serious!”

“Yeah, Bittle, don’t kinkshame my rookie,” Nelly chirps, shooting Bitty a shit-eating grin.

“I’m  _ not,  _ I just—”

Miley sits up on his hands. “Oh, sorry, this is awkward because you—”

“No!” Bitty squeaks. “Or, I mean, yes, but not like  _ that _ —”

“You can say you dommed the shit outta him,” Nelly says. “It’s okay, this is a safe space.”

Miley’s eyes go wide, but Bitty just sniffs dramatically and gets up to grab another beer. “A gentleman doesn’t spank and tell,” he says, vanishing into the kitchen.

“Safe space!” Nelly reminds him helpfully, twisting to project his voice in Bitty’s direction and also pull Parse tighter against his side. He’s  _ really  _ tense.

“For whom, Travis?” Bitty calls. “For _whom?”_

Parse wriggles restlessly against Nelly’s grip, like he can’t decide if he’s gonna smush his face into Nelly’s neck or pull away all together, and Nelly presses his nose against Parse’s temple to murmur, “You okay?”

Bitty comes back into the room with the dogs on his heels just then, though, and dangles a beer in front of Parse’s face. Parse takes it and doesn’t say anything.

Miley sighs. “Seriously, everyone in this room’s slept with him except me, and you’re telling me—”

“I haven’t,” says Benji, who’s mostly just watching TV. He doesn’t even take his eyes off the screen.

Nelly leans over and gives Benji a fistbump. To each their own.

Miley rolls his eyes and says, “Okay, like…sixty percent of the people in this room have fucked Zimmermann, and  _ none  _ of you are onboard with the daddy thing?”

Parse stands up, stumbling to the side as he pushes away from Nelly, and mutters, “Gonna take the dogs out.”

“I just—” Bitty starts, but then he looks up at Parse and shuts his mouth, and it doesn’t matter anyway because the dogs love Parse and as soon as he whistles at them they all tumble after him and through the kitchen to the backyard.

The door slams behind him.

“That feels like a problem,” Miley says.

Nelly claps his hands on his knees as he stands up and ruffles Miley’s hair on his way around the couch. “Follow your dreams, kid,” he tells him, and ditches his beer on the end table.

Parse is standing on the covered deck throwing a tennis ball for the dogs into the gentle rain. Nelly comes up behind him and wraps around him, breathing slowly around the way Parse leans into it.

Nelly doesn't worry about Parse that often these days—at least, not the way he used to. Parse is Nelly's person. Things are okay, even when they're not. But Parse wanted a promise that Nelly couldn't make, because Nelly can't turn Parse into his whole world. He's got Benji, and Soup, and Miley, and Bitty now, too. 

Most of the time it works, but right now—with how Parse is taking the situation with Miley—Nelly worries that he fucked up. “So,” he asks, “is Rookie's Zimmerdaddy thing better or worse than when I fucked him?”

Parse cackles with surprise, and just then Ruff comes to a skidding halt at their feet and drops the mud-covered ball onto Parse’s Converse. Parse picks it up, says, “We’re fine, Nel,” and throws it.

Nelly scratches his beard against Parse’s jaw and squeezes him tighter. 

 

~*~

 

Zimmermann doesn’t come back up until the All-Star games that year. Nelly, Miley, and Parse are all selected to play and bring Bitty and Benji along for the Miami vacation because, honestly, why not? Plus, the Queer-B-Q is gonna be  _ lit  _ this year and there’s no way Nelly is letting either of them miss out on that. Because, like, Bitty is an Honorary Player, basically, and Nelly can literally just fight anyone who says otherwise.

It’s a pretty chill weekend to start out. Pacific doesn’t take any of the group stuff, but Parse wins fastest skater  _ (duh)  _ and Nelly blows him in an equipment room to celebrate, and then they’re meeting Miley for lunch and Nelly is fixing his hair and trying to look like he didn’t just blow a fellow athlete in an equipment room when they run into Zimmermann in the hallway.

“Jack, hey!” Miley says, shifting into Zimmermann’s space, hands shoved in his pockets and rocking on his heels, and Nelly can actually  _ feel  _ Parse’s eyeroll from next to him.

Zimmermann jumps and looks up from his phone. He glances over at Nelly and Parse before focusing on Miley. “Oh, uh, hey.”

“Your slap shot was  _ sick,  _ man! Like, wow.” Miley is basically just beaming at Zimmermann like a total goofball. It’s adorable and maybe a little embarrassing. “I can’t believe you don’t shatter glass with that thing on the reg.”

Parse mumbles, “Seriously?” under his breath, but Zimmermann laughs. There might even be a smile on his face.

“It’s, uh—it’s happened,” he admits, and yeah, he’s  _ definitely  _ smiling. Wild. “I just don’t let my PR team chirp me on Twitter, eh?”

Miley leans up against the wall, his elbow almost brushing Zimmermann’s arm. “Aw, where’s the fun in that?”

Zimmermann schools his face into something fake-serious and says, “I have a very important image to maintain. Crosby almost edged me out as most boring Captain last year.”

Miley laughs and tells him, “You don’t seem boring,” and, wow, Nelly literally can’t believe how well this is working. He kinda wants to do that thing where he wipes a fake tear from his eye.

“This is ridiculous,” Parse mutters, his tone going sharper.

Nelly slings an arm around his shoulders and says, “The kid’s got a crush, Parser, leave him alone.”

_ “I _ had a crush!” Parse hisses. He flinches away from Nelly’s side and stalks off towards the lunch room alone, tugging his snapback around on his head so the brim dips over his eyes.

Well, shit. Nelly starts to go after him, but then Miley asks Zimmermann, “Hey, you’re coming to the Queer-B-Q, right?” and, like, double-shit.

Zimmermann furrows his eyebrows and looks over at Nelly accusingly. “Ah, what’s that?”

Miley turns around to look at Nelly too, all wide-eyed and like,  _ shit, Dad, I fucked up,  _ which is a thing Nelly can hear in his voice.

It’s not, like, in theory, that Zimmermann  _ couldn’t  _ come. It’s just also like last year Zimmermann seemed more interested in fucking off with his boyfriend and also, you know, fuck Jack Zimmermann and Nelly wasn’t going to just walk up to Parse’s ex and invite him to the Queer-B-Q.

Nelly smiles and walks up to Jack Zimmermann and invites him to the Queer-B-Q. Specifically he says, “Uh, yeah, a bunch of us are getting together at Rosco’s place and barbecuing tonight, if you wanna come.”

Zimmermann looks between Miley and Nelly and says, “Uh.”

“Your ex’ll be there, though,” Nelly adds, still smiling.

“Which one?” Zimmermann asks, bone-dry.

“Yes!” Nelly answers cheerfully, because he’s kind of feeling like an asshole right now but, like, in a kind of fun way, and from the way Zimmermann is looking at Miley he’s pretty sure nothing he says is gonna matter anyway.

Zimmermann shrugs and asks, predictably, “Uh, text me the address?”

“Sure thing, bud,” Nelly says. He claps Zimmermann on the arm and heads into the lunch room, Miley apparently right behind him.

“I don’t get what I’m doing wrong?” Miley says once Zimmermann is out of earshot. “Like, Bitty’s over Jack, Parse’s over Jack,  _ you  _ fucked him, but everyone’s acting like—”

“You’re allowed to flirt with Zimmermann, Rook,” Nelly cuts in. He realizes halfway through that he sounds harsher than he meant to and pulls Miley into a headlock, ruffling his hair to compensate. “Just—Parse’s gonna be weird about it, and it’s not like—I dunno, maybe some of it’s you. But it’s also not, like,  _ you. _ You know?”

Miley rubs at his eyebrows. “Uh, sure.”

“Cool,” Nelly says. He waves at Parse from across the room and gives Miley a gentle shove. “Go smother him with your perfect Swedish body or something, it’ll be fine.”

Miley laughs and heads off, and Nelly watches as he plops down next to Parse and wraps an arm around him. Parse shoves at him playfully and then leans into the contact with a smile that looks sincere.

In a minute, Nelly will go over and sandwich Parse from the other side and play footsie with him under the table or something, because they’re actually kind of gross like that. But he has to deal with Zimmermann first.

He copies the address from where it’s saved in his notes and texts it to Zimmermann, then scrubs a hand over his face.

It’ll probably be fine.

 

~*~

 

Nelly, Bitty, Miley, Benji, and Parse all roll up to Rosco’s house together. Bitty has a pie somehow, which Nelly isn’t going to question and is definitely gonna eat like half of, minimum. It’s mostly the usual suspects around, but not everyone knows Bitty yet so Nelly chills with him through introductions and shit until he gets ditched for a conversation about grilling or whatever, which is fine because then Nelly gets to go find Parse again.

He finds Parse talking to Miley and Rosco and his partner, Max, by the pool, laughing about some joke he only catches the tail end of.

“Hey,” he says, punching Miley on the arm and then sliding up behind Parse and resting his chin on the top of Parse’s head.

Parse laughs and tilts his face up to smirks at Nelly. “I’m not your headrest, man.”

Nelly squeezes Parse’s waist. “Keep telling yourself that, babe,” he says, and presses his cheek to Parse’s temple instead.

“Hey, Travis,” Max asks, “how’re the dogs?”

Nelly grins and pulls out his phone right away to show off pics. “Uh, they’re my perfect sweet children and the world doesn’t deserve them. Pretty standard.”

“He loves them more than me,” Parse tells Max.

“They’re our  _ babies,”  _ Nelly says. “Also, love is like, infinite. Look, I taught Benji how to give high fives.”

Max gasps and puts a hand up to his face. “Oh my God, that’s adorable!”

Miley says, “Oh hey, Jack’s here!” and Parse does a weird twitchy thing that almost makes Nelly drop his phone in the pool.

“Zimmermann? I didn’t know he’s—” Rosco cuts off and stares at Parse. “Ohhh.”

“Yeah,” Parse grits out.

Miley darts off to catch Zimmermann by the gate, spinning around Bitty who’s marching over with trademark righteous indignation.

“Travis,” he says pleasantly, except, like, the fake kind. “Did you invite Jack to this barbeque and forget to tell me about it?”

“No?” Nelly tries. “A little?”

Bitty’s smile is like, weirdly wide. “Great. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Nelly says. He’s mostly watching Miley grin at Zimmermann and hand him a beer and wondering how he’s gonna work the tension out of Parse’s shoulders. “Gotta keep you on your toes.”

“Eric, you know Jack Zimmermann?” Max asks.

Parse snorts.

Bitty laughs awkwardly. “Oh, we were teammates, actually, back in college.”

“Oh my God,” Nelly whispers in Parse’s ear, “they were  _ teammates.” _

“Stop,” Parse mutters, but the corner of his smile brushes against Nelly’s face.

“Oh, I didn’t know you play?” Max says.

“Used to,” Bitty clarifies. He does one of those wiggly finger-waves at Zimmermann, who goes total deer-in-headlights and waves back so awkwardly he almost smacks the beer out of Miley’s hand.

Rosco says, “Nelly.”

Miley says something to Zimmermann, who tilts his head and nods, and then Miley puts his hand on Zimmermann’s back.

“Rosco,” Nelly says.

Zimmermann and Miley start to walk over, still touching.

Parse says, “Nope,” and fucking bails.

Rosco asks, “Did you bring drama to my barbecue?”

“Someone had to,” Nelly says. “’Sup, Zimmermann?”

“Uh, hey,” Zimmermann says. He’s watching Parse disappear inside the house, but then he turns back to Bitty in a way that makes it pretty clear who he’s talking to. “It’s good to see you.”

“Oh, um.” Bitty is chewing on his bottom lip. “It’s…good to see you too, Jack.”

Awkward silence.

“Uh, how’s Seattle?” Zimmermann asks.

“They don’t pay me enough,” Bitty says, flicking his eyes over to Nelly with a smile.

Miley says, “Hey!” and Nelly protests, “We pay you with our undying love and affection.”

Bitty’s smile goes a little wider. “I know what I said, Travis.”

“Sounds like we should poach you,” Rosco jokes, trying to cut the tension probably.

“Oh, you know, I’d be tempted,” Bitty tells him, then looks back over at Zimmermann. “But I don’t think my boyfriend’d appreciate relocating.”

Subtle.

Nelly snorts into his hand in a token attempt to act like he isn’t laughing, then figures it’s time to peel away from the conversation when Max, who’s either totally oblivious or some kind of minor chaos demon, asks, “Oh, what does your boyfriend do?”

“Good talk,” Nelly says, patting Bitty’s head as he walks away.

Bitty says, “Oh, he’s a chef, actually!” and launches into his adorable spiel about Malcom that Nelly’s heard like a million times. But he also locks eyes with Nelly and tilts his head towards the house, like,  _ Go get him,  _ which, duh.

Where else would Nelly be going?

The sliding door into the house sticks a little, or maybe Nelly’s feeling that weird spiked iced tea stuff more than he thought because he kind of jerks it open in a weird way, but whatever, Rosco’s got as many zeros in his contract as the rest of them and Nelly probably didn’t break the door. He’s got more important things to worry about, anyway, like figuring out where Parse is in this giant goddamn house.

He tries two bedrooms, a downstairs bathroom, and a weird office space upstairs before he finds Parse sprawled out on the carpeted floor of the master suite, staring up at the ceiling like maybe he’s just been waiting for Nelly to find him.

“Hey,” Nelly says, and squashes Parse with his entire body.

All the air whooshes out of Parse’s lungs as he laughs and/or gasps for air. “Dude!”

They’re chest to chest, Nelly up on his forearms to control how much weight he’s actually putting on Parse. He turns his head to the side and sticks his tongue in Parse’s ear. “Yeah?”

Parse laughs again, squirming away from Nelly’s tongue. “Jesus, you’re the worst.”

“Love you,” Nelly says.

Parse’s voice goes soft. “I know,” he says. “Me too.”

Nelly closes his eyes and waits.

There’s a ceiling fan on and he can hear it whirling around in double time to Parse’s breathing, in and out and around and around.

“It’s like, with Miley,” Parse says carefully, finally, his eyes still up at the ceiling. “He’s not—he just looks at Zimms and sees, like—he doesn’t see the guy who fucked me up for fucking  _ years,  _ who made me feel like—like, I dunno. He just—he sees, like, some dude who’s hot and funny or whatever and I don’t—I’m not—”

He cuts off with a shaky breath. Nelly nuzzles against his cheek and waits for him to finish.

“That that’s all someone looks at him and sees,” Parse says. “I don’t know how to…deal, I guess.”

“Bud,” Nelly breathes, and he rolls off of Parse to lay on his back. Parse rolls with him and tucks his head under Nelly’s chin. “Is it...like that when I did it?”

“’S different,” Parse murmurs. “You’re…you’re my  _ person,  _ you know?”

“Hell yeah I am.” Nelly’s chest feels weird. He buries his nose in Parse’s hair and breathes in his smell until his lungs fill up. “You wanna ask Mo to stop?”

Parse sighs. “No? I mean, that’s not, like, fair?”

“No,” Nelly agrees. “But, like, neither’s feeling like shit.”

“Yeah.” Parse traces his fingers down Nelly’s ribs.

Nelly kisses Parse’s hair and thinks. The fan goes around and around and Parse’s fingers tickle against his t-shirt and there’s not enough weight over his heart.

“You’re not how he saw you either,” he says. “You’re so much better than how he fucking looked at you.”

There’s a catch in Parse’s breathing, a touch against Nelly’s collarbone.

He doesn’t tell Nelly to take it back.

Nelly says, “Maybe let someone look at Zimmermann better, too. Maybe it’s time.”

Parse sits up and pulls Nelly with him and Nelly holds him while he shakes, sobbing once, twice, and then going quiet while his whole body trembles.

“Sorry,” Parse tries, and Nelly has to push down a disbelieving laugh.

“Babe, don’t be,” he tells him. “Jeez, it’s okay.”

Parse makes a grumbly noise and pushes his face into Nelly’s neck but he keeps crying with these little gasping sounds, like he’s afraid to make the way it feels any bigger.

Those go away eventually too, though, and Parse lifts his head and kisses Nelly’s jaw, so Nelly tilts his face up by the chin to kiss him back, soft and slow. It turns into kind of a lazy makeout situation, not a lot of tongue or anything, but Parse feels heavy and fluid against him and it’s good, easy. He basically always wants to kiss Parse.

Parse pulls away and asks, “Wanna go back out?”

Nelly twirls Parse’s cowlick around his finger and tugs on it lightly. “Sure, babe.”

The making out thing definitely works in their favor, because Parse looks a little too wrecked but now so does Nelly, and it’s totally like they were just fucking in a closet somewhere or something and no one’s gonna be like,  _ oh, Parse was freaking out about Zimmermann,  _ or anything.

Like, it’s actually pretty out of character that they  _ didn’t  _ fuck in Rosco’s closet, but it wasn’t the mood.

Anyway, a couple people whistle at them when they get back outside and sit down next to Benji on the deck, Parse chilling between Nelly’s legs and leaning against his chest.

Miley and Zimmermann are standing near the pool talking just far enough away that Nelly can’t really hear their conversation, but from their faces it’s pretty obvious they’re hitting it off, like, really well.

“That’s weird, right?” Benji asks, nodding towards them.

_ “So  _ weird,” Bitty says, sitting down next to Nelly and Parse with two plates of food in his hands. He sets one down on Nelly’s thigh and keeps the other for himself.

Parse looks over at Bitty. “You’re not, like—it doesn’t bug you?”

Bitty scrunches up his stupid adorable face. “Um, a little? But I guess, hm.” He scooches closer, propping his elbow up on Parse’s knee and dropping his voice low like it’s a secret, “It’s kinda fun to make fun of ‘em. Like, look—Miley absolutely just made a reference Jack did  _ not  _ understand, and now he’s gonna act like he got it.”

Nelly looks back over. Zimmermann’s eyebrows are furrowed in concentration and he’s totally avoiding looking at Miley’s face while he stammers something out. Miley seems like he takes pity, though, because he laughs and shifts a little closer.

“No, like…” Miley says, and then Nelly loses the conversation again.

“Jesus,” he says, “it’s like watching a nature documentary.”

Parse says, “Let’s get closer.”

It takes basically everything Nelly has to not do a real-life double take. Bitty grins delightedly and drags his chair off the deck and down towards the pool. Parse and Nelly follow and Nelly smacks Parse’s ass while they walk over because it’s there and it feels like the easiest way of saying,  _ proud of you,  _ without, like, ruining the mood.

Parse turns around and grins at him, so he probably gets it.

“So it’s like a political drama?” Zimmermann asks.

“What?” Parse whispers. Bitty shrugs.

Miley answers, “Uh, sorta? But it’s also, like, kinda horror in like high fantasy?”

“Oh my God,” Bitty says.

“There’s these things called White Walkers—”

Nelly says, “Game of Thrones.”

“It’s 2019,” Parse says. “How the fuck does he not know Game of Thrones?”

Nelly pokes Bitty in the shoulder. “This feels like a moral failing on your part.”

“I didn’t watch it! I hate gore!” Bitty crosses his arms. “Let me rest, Travis.”

Parse hums. “Nah, this is super fake.”

Bitty raises an eyebrow. “What?”

Nelly tunes back to Zimmermann and Miley. Jack is listening closely while Miley excitedly explains the plot of the show, grinning and gesturing with his beer.

Parse counts out points on his fingers while he explains, “Zimms missed the reference, realized Mo thought it was cute, and now he’s just hamming it up for attention.”

Bitty stares at him. “Jack doesn’t do that.”

“Once when we were kids, I spent like two hours ranting about Katy Perry’s discography, and then I found out he already had both her albums on his Zune,” Parse says. He tilts his head and looks up at the sky. “Jesus, I can’t believe I was hung up on a dude who owned a  _ Zune.” _

Nelly bites lightly at Parse’s neck. “You traded up, babe. Just saying.”

“What’s wrong with Zune?” Benji asks.

Nelly pauses. “Benji has many other redeeming qualities.”

“My entire life is a lie,” Bitty says.

“Relatable,” Parse tells him. They fist bump.

Miley’s hand is on Zimmermann’s bicep, which is an interesting development. “What about here?” he asks, skimming his hand down to Zimmermann’s elbow.

“Question,” Parse says. “What the fuck is happening?”

Zimmermann says, “Uh, yeah,” and Miley smiles.

“Hell if I know,” Bitty tells him. “But that’s his ‘trying not to get a boner’ face.”

“Yep.” Parse pops the ‘p’ at the end for dramatic effect.

“Here?” Miley’s voice is lower now, barely audible. He drops his hand onto Zimmermann’s hip and splays it out, fingers reaching up across Zimmermann’s stomach as he shifts even closer.  _ ‘Here?’  _ he’s asking again, unnoticeable except for the way his lips move.

Parse says, “Jesus.”

“RIP Jack Zimmermann,” Bitty agrees.

“When did Rookie get game?” Parse asks. He looks at Nelly. “Was he always like this?”

“That should  _ not  _ be sexy,” Bitty argues. “It’s  _ weird.” _

Whatever it is, it’s working ridiculously well. Zimmermann’s cheeks are pink in the fading light and he’s stammering, “Uh, yeah, that’s—you can, uh—”

Nelly says, “I wish we had popcorn. Like, damn.”

“I think there’s some in the house,” Benji says. “We could go steal it.”

Nelly cracks a smile. “What’s a Queer-B-Q without a little petty theft?”

“I didn’t hear that,” Bitty says automatically. “And you’re not tweeting it.”

Nelly climbs over the back of the chair to avoid dislodging Parse and blows Bitty a kiss as he follows Benji towards the house.

He watches Bitty roll his eyes and lean closer to Parse, nudging him with an elbow and whispering something to him as he nods back at Zimmermann and Miley.

Parse laughs and says something back, but he’s looking at Nelly. His smile comes a little closer to reaching his eyes.

Nelly winks at him and then manhandles the sliding door back open to duck inside after Benji.

_ Yeah,  _ he thinks.  _ It’s gonna be fine. _

**Author's Note:**

> We're entering one of my fave arcs in the series, so buckle up, friends! 
> 
> I'm most active on [my Pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/summerfrost) these days, but I do also still have [Tumblr!](https://www.yoursummerfrost.tumblr.com)
> 
> If you want more poorly-behaved Seattle Schooners antics, give [the OMGCP Suitehearts blog](https://omgcp-suitehearts.tumblr.com/) a follow!


End file.
